Traverse Theatre,
Edinburgh
Four stars
It's a long way from
Zambia to Newcastle for Kema Sikazwe, aka Kema Kay, the UK raised rapper turned
actor, whose profile has been very much on the upturn since his appearance in
Ken Loach's era defining film, I, Daniel Blake. As he tells it over an hour of
autobiographical storytelling peppered with his own songs, Sikazwe arrives in
the rough and tumble of one of Tyneside's less salubrious areas aged three. From
here he is thrown into the deep end of playground bullying and everyday racism
until he discovers a music to call his own as a survival mechanism to weather
the storm.
Despite the show's
title, taken from the Zambian meaning of Sikazwe's name, there is light and
shade aplenty in his story, told in a dynamic but engagingly gentle manner in
Graeme Thompson's production for Live Theatre Newcastle. Using a pair of microphones
set against patterns of ever-pulsating neon strip lights on Emma Bailey's set,
Sikazwe's tale of an alienated immigrant who transcends his lot to find his
muse is more urgent than ever in the volatile state of today's political climate.
Sikazwe invests all this
with such first-hand humanity and bucket loads of charm that any polemical
intent is a mere underscore. There's a sweetness too to some of his songs,
which move from anger and confusion to a kind of redemption as his teenage self
finds his voice both physically and metaphorically.
Sikazwe’s natural
audience here are those from the sort of inner city youth clubs he sprang from,
and one hopes such a demographic get to lap up Sikazwe's wisdom during the show’s
short run this weekend, and that they can see how he turned his life around. If
they do, the unmitigated joy of seeing Sikazwe telling it how things are is
something to be savoured.
The Herald, May 17th 2019
Ends
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